Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely not.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't believe the Prime Minister has an accurate quote. If he were to quote himself or to say something accurate, he would say we are going to continue to fight our veterans in court because that's precisely what the Liberal Party of Canada has chosen to do.

Veterans Affairs committee  My reaction to that is that he's either not listening to me, not understanding me, or he's being disingenuous. It's one of the three, and it can't be all three. At the end of the day, the pension for life does not meet the long-term financial security needs of Canada's disabled

Veterans Affairs committee  My reaction to the veterans who are now politicians who voted against that is disgust, quite frankly. They have betrayed their compatriots in uniform and those who have left the service as well who have difficulties, in my view. The issue really for Equitas is—

Veterans Affairs committee  Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for having us. I am a veteran as well, having spent 32 years as an infantry officer with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. I'm one of the six plaintiffs in the Equitas class action lawsuit that continues against the Go

Finance committee  I'd agree that my understanding of the Prime Minister's promise—what we call the sacred obligation—was a return to lifelong pensions. There's only one lifelong pension to return to, and that is the former Pension Act.

Finance committee  No, the veteran community is extremely concerned, and I'm extremely concerned, that what in fact is going to happen will make no sense, namely, taking the trial balloon that has been floated, the idea of taking the pain-and-suffering lump sum—which is a distinct pillar, separate

Finance committee  I can speak to the lump sum for pain and suffering, in fact. Yes, that $360,000 is the benchmark for the courts in Canada for pain and suffering. There is general agreement—in the policy advisory group, at least, there was almost unanimous agreement—that this figure is adequate

Finance committee  I think the intention of preferred or priority hiring is good. The intention is beneficial, but again the devil is in the details, and it's the execution that has been the problem historically. What you find is that the vast majority of your attrition is from among the junior r

Finance committee  Conceivably we're talking about hundreds or potentially thousands a year. Attrition rates are quite high; the turnover in certain trades within the Canadian Armed Forces is very high, particularly in the combat arms trades—the pointy end. There is more than 50% attrition in a fiv

Finance committee  The service is up to date. In my experience, we're somewhat of a patchwork. There was nothing very coherent in the job search, resumé-writing assistance, and those other things. It varied from base to base across the country. I don't think there was a standard slate of services t

Finance committee  The biggest concern with the budget from the implementation perspective would be the pension itself and the question of a lifetime pension—the return to a lifetime pension—for disabled soldiers. What we see is a budget that makes mention of a pension, yet again, and makes promise

Finance committee  My apologies, but my French is really not that good, and the earpiece wasn't working. Is there somebody here who can perhaps process that in English? Can you help?

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Absolutely this is something that the veterans themselves have been requesting for a long time, an education benefit something akin to the U.S. G.I. bill, as it's called, whereby they provide a college education or certain benefits towards a college education based on four years